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Lead

Hidalgo del Parral is a city and seat of the municipality of Hidalgo del Parral in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It is located in the southern part of the state, 220 kilometers (140 mi) from the state capital, the city of Chihuahua, Chihuahua. As of 2015, the city of Hidalgo del Parral had a population of 109,510 inhabitants, while the metro area had a population of 129,688 inhabitants. During the colonial period the city was known as San José del Parral and was changed after independence from Spain, in honour of Fr Miguel Hidalgo, widely considered the 'Father of the Country'.

Climate[edit]

Hidalgo del Parral has an altitude-moderated semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk) with rainfall limited to heavy thunderstorms during the hot summer months. During the dry season from October to May, days range from mild to hot and nights from chilly to mild. Frosts are common though not persistent in the winter.

Parral from above

Geology

Hidalgo del Parral, and the Cerro la Prieta, are a part of the eastern foothill belt of the Sierra Madre Occidental, characterized by thick eroded deposits of tertiary volcanics. The bed rocks of both sedimentary and volcanic origin supply by both lead and lead-free silver vein bearing ores. The region is characterized by both the silver vein bearing ores and adjacent basins that allowed for the growth of crops such as maize, cattle grazing, and easy routes of communication to the state capital.

History[edit]

Centro en Hidaldo del Parral, Chihuahua

Parral was once a bustling center for silver mining. As early as 1567, the silver mines at Santa Barbara were established in the territory of the Conchos people; however, according to legend, Parral was founded when, Juan Rangel de Biezma came here in 1629, picked up a rock on the “Cerro la Prieta” (La Prieta Hill), licked it and proclaimed, “There is a mineral deposit here.” This deposit produced silver for 340 years.

In 1631, the silver strike began in what is now southern Chihuahua, and by 1640, at the very height of the Spanish Empire, that included territories in Eastern Asia, Italy, and the Low Countries^{[citation needed]} monarch Philip IV of Spain declared Parral the "Capital of the World of Silver." The population of Parral increased drastically following the silver strike rising past 5,000 people in 1635 and 8,500 by 1640.

Colonial Era

Parral's urban design during the colonial period did not mirror the stereotypical checkboard grid layout. Instead the city developed with housing situated as close to the mine and hill as possible. Over time these temporary quarters evolved to more permanent, jacales, adobe structures surrounded by corrals plots of vegetables.

The development of Parral's association with its grain farms and stock ranches was based on the region's major physical characteristics and the necessity for agriculture to sustain the region's growing population. Under colonial authority the region was developed as a permanent mine-ranch settlement complex, requiring large amounts of food and labor.

Parral's population of 8,500 was the largest town north of the tropic of cancer in the Americas and nowhere else in the Americas during the colonial period was there a larger concentration of enslaved African people living in a single place.

Labor

Labor within the mines was challenging, brutal, and frequently exploitative. The principal shaft of the mine at Cerro Prieta was 420 feet deep. In order to access the metals lodged beneath the ground, workers, dug with picks, wedges, metal points, and crowbars. Tools weighed at times up to forty pounds, and miners were working for twelve hours or more a day. Alongside grueling physical labor, miners were also at risk for danger on the job. Diggers regularly fell into shafts, were crushed by collapsing sections of the mine, and breathed in large amounts of silica causing scar tissue and lung decay. The inhalation of silica in the mines would build up in miner's lungs over years gradually causing severe lung scarring, low oxygen levels, and eventually death.

After metals were retrieved beneath the surface, miners, frequently enslaved Indigenous and African men utilized leather bags to bring metals to the surface. Derived from the Nahuatl word, tenatl, a fiber or leather bag, ore carriers were generally referred to as tenateros.Carrying 225–300-pound bags of metallic rock from the shafts to the surface, enslaved miners crawled through low passages and ascended by way of pine logs and ladders, before being unloaded into carts for transport.

A member of the Reales de Minas in Northern Mexico, the mines in Parral had a distinctive militaristic political and social structure. Labor for the mines of Parral was initially hard to obtain as the Chichimec people were not sedentary and were able to resist Spanish forced labor in the repartimiento system. Thus, systems of free labor emerged in the mines of Hidalgo del Parral that attracted large numbers of Aztec and Tarascan workers from the Southern mining company, Axace and Xixime workers from Sinaloa, Opata from Sonora and some Huichol and Tepehuan workers from Durango. Connecting networks of migratory native mine workers and suppliers across the region, the economic sphere of Parral extended far beyond the colonial center's geographic boundaries.

After extraction, metals were transported from the mine to dozens of estates, known as haciendas, across the region for processing. Utilizing the smelting method to crush the ore into coarse gravel and combine it with molten lead, workers separated silver from rock. A few haciendas in Parral did not use the smelting process, and instead utilized patio amalgamation.

Independence

The large area of southern Chihuahua inhabited by the Tarahumara people included the highway between the mining districts of Parral, Cusihuiriachic, and Chihuahua.^{[citation needed]} Asarco managed the La Prieta mine until the boom ended in the early 1930s; the minerals that were extracted were sent to the United States for final processing and then shipped back to Mexico, and the US and other markets. After the end of the silver mining boom, Parral was almost completely abandoned in the early 1930s, although the surrounding district continues to be mined for silver and base metals.

Modern Era

2015, Train Station in Parral

Currently Parral is a medium-sized town in the state of Chihuahua mainly dedicated to commerce and is an important regional center for trade between the southern regions of Chihuahua and northern Durango. Urban development has been slow due to the lack of potable water and its complex physical geography.

Today, Parral is often associated with several historical figures, including Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa, who was assassinated in Parral on July 20, 1923, and initially buried here; and border ruffian "Dirty" Dave Rudabaugh, a sometime friend and foe of Billy the Kid.

Locals and visitors of Parral can visit the Palacio de Alvardo, a late nineteenth century house belonging to a mining baron, as well as, if accompanied by a guide, the mine itself. Its intricate network of streets and alleys are distinctive features of the city, helping to preserve its colonial style.

Parral received its first local television station in 1969, the now-defunct XHJMA-TV channel 3, and it currently has one local station, XHMH-TV channel 13.

References

1. Katz, Friedrich. The Life and Times of Pancho Villa. 1998. P. 1004
2. Resendez, Andres. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America.
3. West, Robert. The Mining Community in Northern New Spain: The Parral Mining District. 1949.